Hesston girls top Emporia in opener

HESSTON — While Hesston High School girls’ basketball coach Matt Richardson wasn’t completely pleased with his team’s 51-28 win over the Emporia Spartans Tuesday in the Garden Plain Classic, he does see a lot of promise in his young team. The Swathers hit 51 percent, 20 of 39, from the field. Emporia was 11 of 31. “It was a first game, and it looked like it at times,” Matt Richardson said. “I was a little frustrated with our defense in the first half. We weren’t cutting off gaps like we should have been. The kids were able to make an adjustment in the second half. It just felt good that they were able to keep them away from the basket.” Hesston was led by sophomore Caylee Richardson with 16 points. “Our offense went well in the second half,” Caylee Richardson said. “Our defense worked well in the second half. We got in the passing lanes and worked well with our helpside defense. Our posts can attack on the inside, and we have some people who can show on the outside, so it’s hard to defend.” The Swathers are looking to improve on last season’s 17-6 record. “We definitely want to go to state this year,” Caylee Richardson said. “That’s our biggest goal.” Emporia, 1-1, was led by Whitney Wilhite with 11 points. Hesston outscored Emporia 9-0 from beyond the arc in the first quarter to take a 15-7 lead. The Swathers extended their lead to 10 early in the second quarter. Emporia finally hit its first trey of the game two minutes into the second quarter. A Weaver trey with six seconds left in the half put the Swathers up by 12 at intermission, 27-15. Hesston was 10 of 18 shooting in the first half. Emporia was six of 19. Hesston took a 15-point lead in the third quarter on a Megan Voth trey with 4:09 left in the period. The Swathers led by 16 at the end of the period, 41-25. The Swathers missed their first three shots of the second half, but a pair of Cami Richardson layups off steals put the Swathers ahead by 20 with 5:52 remaining in regulation. Emporia was unable to get a shot off in the first three minutes of the final period. “That’s a testament of how deep we are,” Matt Richardson said. “I feel real good about how deep we can go if we have to. It’s a good thing our perimeter shot was hitting, because we were struggling with passes. We’re as deep as we’ve ever been at Hesston. Every day in practice, we go hard. They’ve committed themselves to work to make each other better.” Hesston plays Garden Plain Thursday, followed by Rose Hill Friday. Both games are at Garden Plain. “Garden Plain is very legit,” Matt Richardson said. “They have some very good players. Rose Hill is a solid program as well. We neeed to do the little things again. We need to talk on screens. We need to do a better job of running the floor.” “We’re still getting in shape,” Caylee Richardson said. “We’re still working on getting our defense and offense in. We just need to get in the flow.”EMPORIA (1-1) — Birch 0 0-1 0 0; Raygoza 0 0-0 0, 0; Sanchez 3 0-3 3, 6; Bowman 1 0-0 1, 2; Hastings 0 0-0 2, 0; Wilhite 1 (2) 3-4 1, 11; Schaefer 0 0-0 0, 0; Guion 1 (1) 0-0 0, 5; Garza 2 0-0 1, 4; Williams 0 0-0 1, 0; Henery 0 0-0 0, 0; Aranda 0 0-0 0, 0; TOTALS 8 (3) 3-8 9, 28. HESSTON (1-0) — Jost 1 1-2 1, 3; Cay.Richardson 5 (1) 3-5 1, 16; Weaver 0 (3) 0-0 2, 9; Voth 0 (2) 0-0 3, 6; Nebel 0 0-0 0, 0; Suhler 0 0-0 0, 0; Reimer 2 0-0 1, 4; Cam.Richardson 3 0-0 0, 6; Baumgartner 0 0-0 0, 0; Unruh 3 1-2 0, 7; Deegan 0 0-0 0, 0; TOTALS 14 (6) 5-9 10, 51. Emporia 7 8 10 3 —28 Hesston 15 12 14 10 —51